MY KOOKIE KAR KOPY


	MY KOOKIE KAR KOPY By Gary E. DeFer

IN 1979 after many years of mentally building a Model “T” hot rod along the lines of Norm Grabowski’s and Tommy Ivo’s rides, I stumbled across the remains of someone’s unfinished project sitting in a vacant lot in Hayward Ca. I had followed “Estate Sale” signs to the spot where it was languishing next to a house where the sale was being conducted. Ignoring all the other sale items I went strait to the “T”. It consisted of the gutted but steel

tubing reinforced front half of a middle teen to early twenty’s “T” touring body with a shortened Model “A” P.U. bed tack welded to the back. A highly modified “A” frame and the prize, a pair of Tornado aluminum headlight stand’s. I knew this was my chance to start the project I had dreamed of for so many years. I casually walked over to the people running the sale and asked them if “the old car” was for sale. They seemed surprised anybody would be interested and said I could have it all for $20. I couldn’t get my wallet out fast enough. I took it home and put it



	“The 32 Ford grill was purchased later that year at a swap for $12.50 after dickering it down from $15. That will tell you how tight money was for me in the late 70s, raising a family while trying to build my dream rod.

in the old leaky shed that I used as a shop in the back of my San Leandro tract home.

The next few years I lived the Northern Ca. swap circuit. Picking up parts I deemed necessary to achieve “The Look”. I never wanted to clone Norm’s “Kookie Kar” as Von Franko, unknown to me at the time was doing, but just to capture the look as Tommy Ivo had with his copy in the ‘50s. Certain parts were essential. I already had the original early “T” body with the shortened “A” bed and the Tornado headlight brackets. I now needed a 37 Ford V8 60 tube front axle and a 40 Ford banjo differential to complete “the look”. These parts I wouldn’t compromise on. I found and purchased them in the ensuing few years. Yes this was a long-term project encompassing most of the decade of the ‘80s.

Remember, in the ‘80s the word nostalgia wasn’t in most of our vocabulary so all I needed was a V8 engine. A friend gave me a 260 Ford V8 that would do fine, and it fit into my budget.


	1988, me in the plaid shirt with my good friend Al Fontes who did most of the heavy welding and all of the final paint.

By the late ‘80s I had a rolling chassis. and had discovered the Goodguys rod runs. I stepped up the pace and had the roadster street-able in 1989. I attended my first Goodguys event in May of that year where I met Von Franko. We hit it off great. I loved his car that was so like Grabowski’s “T” I thought at the time it was the original, and Franko gave no reason to believe otherwise..

Over the next fifteen or so years I enjoyed driving my “T” to many rod runs in California. The L.A. Roadsters Fathers-day shows in Pomona several times, many Goodguys events and a couple of Northern Ca. Billetproof shows. I even got the chance to drive it to the Bonneville salt-flats a couple of times with the Tardel racing team.

Me driving the roadster from the backyard shed for the first time 1989

Von Franko taking me for a ride in his Kookie Kar clone that I still thought was the original ’50s Gragowaski rod.

Over the next fifteen or so years I enjoyed driving my “T” to many rod runs in California.




	I even got the chance to drive it to the Bonneville salt-flats a couple of times with the Tardel racing team.


	By this time the roadster was starting to get a little frayed around the edges. The salt had taken its toll on the rear suspension, the brakes were showing signs of wear and I had started working on a ’53 Cadillac engine for it. By now I wanted it to be all ‘50s. It was time for a rebuild. But that’s another story. Stay tuned




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